


december 18th: friend for life

by watergator



Series: december fic advent 2018 [18]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, parent!phan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 08:17:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17056196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: prompt: cottondan and phil go shopping for their baby





	december 18th: friend for life

Once they step out of the cab and onto the pavement they’re greeted with the large illuminous sign that blares bold and blue, MotherCare.  
  
Dan shoves his hands into the pockets out his coat, “God it’s freezing, bad time for a baby,” he jokes. Phil just rolls his eyes and drags him through the door.  
  
Of course, Dan had been kidding; since they knew they’d be having a winter baby, and most of shopping and preparing and hauling themselves to hospital check-ups and appointments would be in the cold of the winter, Dan had to find some way to complain. But when they’d see that little black and white blob on the machine tucked up warmly in Ellen, their surrogates stomach, Dan would smile so wide that Phil would worry his face would crack in half.  
  
Now, with just seven weeks to go, insane as it is, they walk through the entrance to where they’re greeted with a bright sight. Among racks and shelves of brightly coloured clothing that sits up high and pretty, roams bustling people. Pregnant woman waddle along with their partners in hand as they stop for a brief moment to gaze upon an item catching their eye. Other mothers, less pregnant chase after children who are no taller than 2 feet tall, giggling as parents scoop them up and sit them down into the shopping trolley with a huff. Some groups of families walk by. An elderly couple cooing at a bib that reads along the lines, _“I love my Grandma!”_ and Phil feels out of place for a moment.  
  
He grabs Dan hand for reassurance, and without words, Dan gives it a squeeze. “C’mon,” he smiles, leading them towards a large isle under the name newborn.  
  
As it turns out, picking out baby clothes was a lot harder than either of them expected. Some of the clothes are tiny, whilst another’s are a little larger. Dan pulls out his phone and starts tapping away once frustration begins to eat at him.  
  
“Pineapple,” is what he finally says after a while, and Phil puts the yellow duck printed baby grow down on the rack in confusion.  
  
“Pineapple,” he repeats, “the baby should be as big as a pineapple so I guess just imagine a pineapple and figure out what clothes it’d fit in.”  
  
He’s talking about his baby app. It was cute, really, to listen every week to Dan talk about what size their child was in comparison to fruits. Until Phil pointed out on day that fruits could vary really, and didn’t have a set size. Dan hadn’t appreciated that.  
  
Phil frowns and ends up throwing the baby grow into the trolley with a huff. “That’s not much help, Dan,” Phil points out. Dan gives him a look and Phil just smiles, tongue trapped between his teeth.  
  
“See, now you understand why I said we couldn’t do baby shopping online,” Phil tells him as he picks up a tiny pair of baby trainers in his hands.  
Dan snorts a laugh, “Yup. I really under estimated how fu- bloody difficult this was,” he says, taking the trainers into his hands and throwing them into the trolley.  
  
Phil takes them back out and back on the rack. “So what I’m saying is, let’s just go for a range of clothes, that way whatever we don’t need we can like, donate again,” Phil tells him with a shrug, pushing the trolley forward.  
  
He ignores how Dan picks up the pair of shoes again and drops it in with the other clothes. “Rude of you to assume that if we have a son he won’t want to wear a pink frilly dress,” Dan half jokes.  
  
Phil smiles and shakes his head, walking away with the trolley. “C’mon. We need blankets and stuff.”  
  
Blankets and stuff is walking down isles and cooing at sweet little bibs and soft blankets with stitched in images. Dan picks up an Eeyore one with and makes a pouty face until Phil gives in and lets Dan add it to the growing collection at the bottom of their trolley.  
  
In fact, Phil gives in to a lot of Dan’s cooing and pleading and little whines of,  
  
“Oh but just imagine, Phil, who cute the baby would look in this watermelon tee and shorts combo in the summer, just _imagine_ it Phil!”

 

And whilst a green t-shirt and shorts with patterened watermelon slices on them does seem a bit ridiculous, Phil does imagine how stupidly adorable it would look. So in they go.  
  
Half an hour later and Phil’s sure he’s pushing half the stores stock in their trolley. A pregnant woman walks past them and peers into their trolley with a chuckle.  
  
“First time?” She asks sweetly. Phil nods sadly. She just laughs and moves on.  
  
Phil looks at the pile of crap they’d accumulated and sighs. “Dan, honey, we surely don’t need all this stuff, do we?” He asks. Dan frowns, looking hurt.  
  
“Phil, this is our child. We need this for them,” he protests. Phil reaches in and pulls out a tiny hot dog costume aged six months with his brows raised.  
  
“Even this?” he asks. Dan swallows thickly.  
  
“Yeah, of course we do. Better to be prepared than not at all,” he shrugs and Phil just throws it back in the trolley in defeat.  
  
“Six months in advance prepared?”  
  
Dan smiles. “Uh huh, get used to it babe. I’m going all out here on out,” he winks.  
  
Phil doesn’t need convinced. A few weeks of discovering that their surrogate was pregnant Dan had gone a little crazy and come home with a stroller that was probably worth more than their house. Phil couldn’t stay too mad though when he’d seen the excited tears in Dan’s eyes.  
  
(That being said, it did get shipped back from whatever posh baby company it’d come from and they’d settled for a much more sensibly priced one.)  
  
They’re making their way to the cashier when Dan squeals again, and over the half hour of stopping and trying to convince Dan to keep walking, Phil ignores him as Dan doubles back and runs towards a little pyramid stack of what looked like stuffed animals.  
  
“Oh my god, Phil, come here!” Dan calls out and Phil spins the trolley back round with a huff as he joins Dan where he stands, already ready to pull him away.  
  
Dan has a plush bunny in his hands and an expectant look on his face, like he knows how to get round Phil, mostly because he does know.  
  
“Dan,” Phil starts in a warning tone, but Dan just shoves the plush bunny in his face and coos loudly.  
  
“Phil, we need to get the baby this, everyone has a first teddy and I think this is it,” he pleads. Phil frowns.  
  
“First of all, that’s not a teddy, that’s a bunny,” Phil starts and takes the stuffed animal out of his hands and back along with the others.  
  
“And secondly,” he says, ignoring Dan’s pout, “I think we’ve got plenty here for now.”  
  
Dan doesn’t look impressed, and instead takes the bunny back in his hands. “Phil. This is Mr Cotton. He’s gonna be her best friend for life, a source of comfort in her darkest times and you really wanna take that away from our baby? You monster?” Dan jokes, his tone entirely serious, but Phil doesn’t care because his heart kicks against his chest when he hears the word ‘her’.  
  
Technically they don’t have a clue if they’ll be returning home from the hospital with a son or a daughter, and it’s never entirely mattered. But some way along the line of the long months of pregnancy, thanks to Ellen, the baby had been dubbed as ‘she’ and ‘her’, and although they’d agreed not to get to attached to the idea of them having a girl, whenever they’d slip up and use those two little words, Phil would feel a burst of affection in his chest.  
  
Dan still has the bunny in his hands, not looking like he’s likely to give in any time soon. “So therefore, Mr Cotton is a part of this family and there’s no way I’m leaving him behind.”  
  
Phil laughs and shakes his head. “Mr Cotton?”  
  
Dan’s fierce expression melts into a grin, “Yeah. Mr Cotton, fitting isn’t it?”  
  
Phil shrugs with a chuckle, “I suppose so.”  
  
Dan looks down at the bunny in his hands and smiles warmly. “What do you say, Mr Cotton? Wanna come home with us? Reckon you’ll survive the hell that’s about to be embarked on you through drool and tears and shit and piss and puke? It’s a rough game, being a babies toy.”  
  
Phil snorts and slaps Dan’s arm. “Shut up,” he giggles and takes the bunny from his hands as Dan laughs, before gently tossing it into the trolley on top of all the stuff they don’t need at all but will take home anyways.  
  
“Poor Mr Cotton,” Dan sighs as they walk towards the cashier to meet their doom.  
  
Phil bumps his shoulder against his and they share looks for a moment.  
  
“Poor Phil, I think you mean,” he speaks and Dan bumps him back.  
  
“Oh, you love it honey,” he winks.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr !! @watergator


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